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We can’t forget

I am off in the morning to attend Iran Tribunal, the International People’s Court being held this week in London to try the Islamic Republic of Iran for its crimes during the 1980s, the bloody decade. You can see the hearing live from 9.30am-5.30pm GMT here.

A good friend of mine, Mersedeh Ghaedi, whose two brothers and a sister-in-law were executed during this time and who herself spent 8 years in prison will be testifying. I’ll write more about her and what happened during this decade when I get back from the hearing.

Until then, let me leave you with this:

…They poured onto the streets and arrested anyone who did not look like a Muslim. If someone had salt and pepper in his/her pockets, they accused him/her of planning to throw it in the eyes of the Revolutionary Guards. They arrested anyone who had recited a poem, who was known to be a Socialist or supporter of women’s rights, anyone who was not veiled and anyone who looked Left wing and executed them that same night. Statistics, documents and witnesses proving these atrocities are ample. There will come a day when the people of Iran and the world will observe the trials of those who committed these crimes. On that day, the world will weep for the hundreds of thousands of victims of 20 June (30 Khordad 1360) and after and particularly 1988 (1367).

This was one of the greatest crimes of the 20th Century, comparable to Nazi Germany, the genocide in Indonesia and Rwanda, and much more brutal than what took place in Chile. It is one of the most important catastrophes and human tragedies of the 20th Century. They attacked, suppressed, killed and buried in unmarked graves, innumerable people. They massacred many of the best, the most passionate and progressive people in order to remain in power…